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Thread: What is a Professional Appraisal?

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    Member morningtundra's Avatar
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    What is a Professional Appraisal?

    A "Professional Appraisal" is occasionally required for authentication or valuation (insurance, dispute mediation etc).

    Who is typically considered 'authoritative' to perform an appraisal (particularly on vintage watches)?

    What does a professional appraisal of a vintage watch actually look like or contain?

    If I can find someone willing to do one, what is a reasonable price to pay for such a service?

    I'm curious to know if anyone has had one done and what your experience was like.

    Thanks
    Last edited by morningtundra; Jun 22, 2017 at 02:00 PM. Reason: HTML escape codes not rendering properly

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    Zenith & Vintage Mod Dan R's Avatar
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    That is a very tough one to call.

    Sometimes, one can get lucky and find their watch in a reference book such as one put out by Tom Engle * Richard E. Glibert * Cooksey Schugert. But many times, you will need to ask several jewelers to get the name of one appraiser. Jewelers who have a heirloom selection may be likely to than those who do not. Then too, many jewelers will only pay you for the item's weight in gold or types of jewels.

    What you are looking for is a paper that will be issued with the appraiser stating that this item is worth this amount. If they do not issue a paper or other written proof, the items does not have that value they stated.

    What to pay? If you happen to look into a regional NAWCC event, they may have some appraisers there and if you are willing to wait, it may cost nothing. Otherwise, expect to pay for the person's time. If the item is easy to research, it will cost less. I have never had to do it, so I am not aware of the costs.

    Hope this helps some,

    Dan

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  4. #3
    MWC is that my watch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan R View Post
    That is a very tough one to call.

    Sometimes, one can get lucky and find their watch in a reference book such as one put out by Tom Engle * Richard E. Glibert * Cooksey Schugert. But many times, you will need to ask several jewelers to get the name of one appraiser. Jewelers who have a heirloom selection may be likely to than those who do not. Then too, many jewelers will only pay you for the item's weight in gold or types of jewels.

    What you are looking for is a paper that will be issued with the appraiser stating that this item is worth this amount. If they do not issue a paper or other written proof, the items does not have that value they stated.

    What to pay? If you happen to look into a regional NAWCC event, they may have some appraisers there and if you are willing to wait, it may cost nothing. Otherwise, expect to pay for the person's time. If the item is easy to research, it will cost less. I have never had to do it, so I am not aware of the costs.

    Hope this helps some,

    Dan
    yes hard call most of my vintage / Russians / swiss. I do my own research on and as I pay only moderate prices I tend to take a chance more on it and my own judgement on a watch.. it's very hard to do a valuations on certain watches rolos and the like have a set sort of price system depending on country and most watch makers will check with rolex on models and the like thats why.. say take rolex a good service history will help a lot but with other brands that don't have such things ..

    depending which watchmaker you go to you will get a different value some will only value as dan says to the precious metals and stones .. other may do the brand and history but you just can't really tell as it varies. so much,

    from model to model and brand to brand top end brands their stores would probably offer a service for checking authenticity and would give you some proof of this for insurances purposes..

    one time I sold a 1960's vertex revue great name great history seen a few sell a few years back for several hundred it went for like £50 ... so even if you get a valuation that says £250 don't mean you are going to get that

    there are reference books that can be a great help say for Russian pre 1995 I would go juri levenbergbook on Russians watches,

    there are a few covering swiss watches to and think there was a guy called mark smith did a few good reference books too ..

    but if you are asking these question from a point of view of insuring them .. probably best would be to see what they sell at auctions within the last say three to six months and state that with of course a mark up because if the worse happen's you would want to be cover encase they increase in value plus you would be mostly likely having to replace by paying retail prices..

    so does that help at all ?

    think best you can do is the same as when you are looking for a watch do your research first before hand .. then if you still not sure do what I do and get dan to give a look as well
    Last edited by is that my watch; Jun 17, 2017 at 05:59 PM. Reason: spelling
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    Member morningtundra's Avatar
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    Helpful and thoughtful comments. Thank you.


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